Anza-Borrego Desert wildflower package

·         The 42-acre oasis is San Diego County’s only four-star desert resort, and it seamlessly merges the serenity of nature with the convenience and comforts of superior service and state-of-the-art technology.

Anza-Borrego, Calif.  – Southern California’s 2008 spring wildflower season is already off to a spectacular bloom that is expected to last into April, as Mother Nature has already provided substantial amounts of rain in 2008. Wildflower enthusiasts can very comfortably enjoy the bloom with a new Wildflower Package, from $315, at La Casa del Zorro Desert Resort and Spa in Borrego Springs, the northeastern San Diego County desert hamlet surrounded by the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. At 640,000-acres, it is the largest state park in the contiguous U.S. and it contains over half of all California’s State Park lands.

Offered at $315 Sunday through Thursday and $395 Friday and Saturday nights, March 6^th through April 4^th, the wildflower package includes one night’s accommodation for two in a deluxe poolside room with a private patio or balcony. The package also includes continental breakfast, Easy Day Hikes: Anza Borrego - A Falcon Guide, plus a guide to the spring Wildflowers of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park that is perfect for identifying the location and species of a wide variety of annual wildflowers, flowering cacti, trees and shrubs.

Additionally, the package provides guests with self-guided hike information from the resort’s Naturalist, a gourmet boxed lunch featuring a choice of Wraps, bottled water and a package of tasty, nutritional “Trail Mix de La Casa.” This package is per room, double-occupancy, and taxes and gratuities are NOT included.

La Casa del Zorro also offers fee-based, naturalist-guided private hikes and complementary naturalist-guided group hikes. Guests of the resort also have access to the adjacent, private Tom Fazio Signature Golf Course at Montesoro. 

Every spring, from around the globe visitors trek La Casa del Zorro and the undeveloped Anza-Borrego Desert to ogle springtime wildflowers, a palette of brilliant colors: the beaming red flowers of an ocotillo, the luminous white sand verbenas mixed with the intense purple version, the delicate white bloom of a desert apricot, and the deep purple blooms of the Turpentine broom bushes. Also treasured are desert lilies and sunflowers, rose mallow, gooseberry, milkvetch, dune evening primrose, and lupine flowers, all found like rays of sunshine along the roadsides, hidden in canyons and filling open fields.

Spring wildflowers, with the right mix of wind and rain, will enhance the State Park’s always-visually-striking canyons, badlands, sand dunes, mountains, washes, caves, palm groves, cacti and even streams.  Sweeping vistas might include roadrunners, golden eagles, kit foxes, mule deer and bighorn sheep as well as desert iguanas and chuckwallas. For current details, call the Wildflower Hotline: (760) 767-4684.

Past wildflower seasons in the Anza-Borrego Desert have produced legendary floral kaleidoscopes that have been singled out for their unique beauty by the likes of Smithsonian magazine, USA Today, NBC News and the Los Angeles Times.

La Casa del Zorro too has gained media praise; National Geographic Adventure Magazine reported, “Here’s evidence that adventure lodges don’t need to be rustic,” and the Zagat Survey 2007 found the rooms to be “excellent,” the dining “very good” and the service “extraordinary.” 

La Casa del Zorro’s deluxe poolside rooms are upscale, considerably larger than typical hotel rooms, and feature either one king bed or two queen beds, a sizeable sitting area, plush, residential-quality furnishings, a stocked wood-burning fireplace, wet bar and mini-bar and spectacularly-appointed and spacious bathrooms with double sinks, full bath and separate, marble and glass showers. First floor deluxe rooms offer French doors opening onto a private patio that leads to an adjacent pool and whirlpool. Second floor deluxe rooms offer vaulted ceilings and balconies overlooking the pool. All rooms offer complementary high-speed wireless and hardwired internet connectivity.

La Casa del Zorro is approximately 90 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, 80 miles south of Palm Springs, 100 miles east of San Clemente, and 150 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The drive from coastal California is one of “America’s top drives,” according to Rand McNally “Best of the Road Awards.” The drive is beautiful year round, offering terrain and scenery vastly different than on the coast. Once in Borrego Springs, drivers will be 50 miles from the nearest stoplight.

Beyond its famous wildflowers, the state park offers guided activities involving archeology, astronomy, birding, bighorn sheep sighting, the Borrego hawk watch, traditional Indian basketry and morteros, geology, paleontology, history, Junior Rangers, desert sky photography and campfires. Guided hikes include Palm Canyon, Palm Wash and the Borrego Badlands. The state park also offers 110 miles of hiking and riding trails and 500 miles of dirt roads.

Additional activities for guests at La Casa del Zorro include championship golf on the private, Tom-Fazio-designed course at Montesoro and tennis, swimming, spa services, archery, billiards, official croquet tournaments, life-size chess matches, wine tours and internet-connected computers.

The “Wildflower Package” is not valid with groups/conventions and cannot be combined with other promotional offers.  Rate is per room/per night. Additional charges apply to room-type upgrades.  Additional guests may be subject to additional hotel charges. Complimentary breakfast is not valid on room service orders.  Any unused portions of this package are non-refundable and non-transferable.

La Casa del Zorro Desert Resort is located at 3845 Yaqui Pass Rd. Borrego Springs, CA 92004 and can be telephoned at (800) 824-1884 and found on the Internet at: www.LaCasadelZorro.com.  Related websites include: www.borregospringschamber.com, www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=638 (Anza-Borrego Desert State Park), www.TheABF.org (The Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute), and www.California-Desert.org (Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association). 

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